Why Women's Organizations Need to Sister Up and Pay Speakers

We women know that giving away our services for free is bad for business, just as we know saying yes to every invite and project at work is bad for our career. Both practices perpetuate the doormat syndrome.

While we’re developing our businesses and ramping up our careers, we speak at professional associations and networking groups for free because, as author and women’s leadership expert Selena Rezvani writes here, the gold-standard belief is that our generosity will benefit our reputation and our pocketbook somewhere down the line.

In the course of a year, I’m asked, usually by women, to do a lot of these events at a rate of – you guessed it – zero dollars.

“We’re a non-profit,” some groups will say. “Our budget is miniscule,” others explain. Still others apply pressure with, “We’ve had years of speakers who were willing to do it for free.” Even so, “something” for “nothing” does not equate to a deal and these organizations need to take a closer look at what they’re asking of women.

If you are a member of a women’s professional organization or association, your mission statement likely states some variation of the following:

To advance the economic, social and political power of women in the world.

To develop members’ individual capacities for generating wealth through networking, strategic alliances, and professional development opportunities.

To advocate for public policies that benefit women and to collectively wield influence when the rights of women are threatened.

So far so good.

In general, these organizations don’t pay their speakers at professional development events or workshops, and often don’t source from the expertise of the membership to deliver programming, opting instead to “import” talent—those who’ve made it or published or broken the entrepreneurial mold.

They feature the regional and national rock stars of the women’s business world.

On its face this might seem to make sense. The organization needs to hit home runs and satisfy members and sponsors expectations. And one could argue that rock star speakers with books to sell would call speaking for free in exchange for selling books a fair deal.

Modeling Fairness and Parity

But for my money, the mission and the actions of the organization don’t square. We need our organizations to model at the level of our pocketbooks that what we do for a living is not only worth money, but a sustainable plank in one’s platform for business success.

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The other types of speaker that I see are women that are part of the managing cliques. It’s the friends of the organizers who speak. You’re forced to endure a presentation about the products/services of the speaker.

You are oh so right, Lisa! Your point about the missions of these organizations is so striking. Not paying women invalidates/negates the impact that these groups are trying to make and hurts their standing all around! So glad you furthered this dialogue.

Selena, yes. In writing the piece I went to several organizations’ websites and I was struck by the similarity mission statements. If women who sit on the boards of those orgs wake up and move for this kind of change, we’ll get there.

Good point, Lisa. Organizations that expect women to donate their time instead of being paid are in essence creating their own “good ole boys club”. The thoughtlessness is amazing. As you point out, they defeat themselves.

It is not just Women’s organizations, but other professional organizations including education and medical, which I deal with a great deal. They invite you to speak but ask for it to be free. Many have also said that I can’t sell books from the back of the room or have flyers promoting my business in training and seminars. If I want, however, I can PAY to be an exhibitor.

It is not always as useful to have the membership be the only speakers, however, due to the the risk that they will either just promote themselves, or keep preaching the standard line, while the rest of the world has figured out new ways or more accurate ways of approaching problems.

Women’s organizations need to figure out how they can really walk the talk.

I couldn’t agree more. I know of a women’s conference that recruits top motivational speakers — they pay expenses, but no fee — for “the great experience.” Some do it because they see their colleagues have done it. They think they’ll get spin-off business, and it doesn’t happen. It’s the speakers who have to say no. They’ll have to figure out the difference between speaking to build their business and speaking because they don’t know how to say no. As a speakers bureau owner specializing in women’s events, I have a stake in this issue.